When I was a teen, I invited several friends to our youth group. Nobody told me to invite them. I just wanted them to have what I had: a solid faith and a wonderful group of friends where I felt accepted and loved. I also talked with non-Christian friends about my faith. One friend, with whom I went cycling on Sunday afternoons, and I would talk for hours about God.
This was simple evangelism, driven by a love for God and a love for my friends.
My experience is not the standard, however. Too often, teens feel pressured or tricked into evangelism. Bombarded with messages such as, “Your friends are going to hell,” and, “If you don’t evangelize, you’re not a good Christian,” teens will try to talk about God with their friends, but they’ll do it out of guilt.
I suspect the majority of teens’ missional efforts are inspired by guilt, and that’s excluding mission trips, in which the motivation of adventure and seeing a part of the world that’s foreign to them plays a role. This guilt trip may not be intentional, but in the long run teens will come to detest evangelism. We may ruin the joy of bringing people to Christ forever for them.
We need to strive for helping teens share the gospel out of love instead of guilt. I’ve seen young people be enthusiastic about evangelism and with great effect, but it requires starting from a place other than guilt.
Starting Point No. 1: Personal Faith
The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 often is used to convince students they should evangelize. Jesus commanded you to do so, so you have to obey.
Making disciples, however, is something you can do only if you are a student of Jesus yourself. That means teens who have not made a personal commitment to Jesus cannot make disciples. They still can invite their friends to events, which certainly isn’t bad, but you cannot expect them to make disciples.
True discipleship is contagious. When students encounter Jesus and decide to follow Him, their changed lives will attract others. That’s when their friends won’t need much convincing to make Jesus their Master and Teacher, as well. The theological foundation for any kind of evangelism is solid discipleship, meaning transforming your students into dedicated followers of Jesus. When they start to grasp grace, when they comprehend just a sliver of what Jesus has done for us, that’s when they will teach others what they have learned themselves. Without that personal faith, they may preach a false or distorted gospel.
Don’t get me wrong: God is gracious, and He can use the most theologically unsound evangelism efforts for good. I once knew a student who came to Christ from a non-Christian background through a friend. He immediately started evangelizing, and his efforts were not subtle (to put it mildly). God was gracious and allowed his efforts to bear fruit, but it resulted in some cringe-worthy moments.
Obviously students don’t have to have perfect theology or a head full of theological knowledge before they can evangelize. On the other hand, a solid base will be helpful. This can be a tricky balance. We once had a group of students in our youth ministry who had outreach as a goal, but they were so focused on discipling themselves they never got around to sharing the gospel with others. That’s certainly a risk worth noting.
Starting Point No. 2: Passion
The primary motivation for evangelism has to be love. Love for their friends, classmates, teammates—that’s what will propel teens into an honest effort to reach out to others. So how can we help them develop a love for their neighbors?
First, we must demonstrate it ourselves. Teens will look to our behavior more than anything, so if we don’t show love for our neighbors, they won’t copy it. An honest effort to show love and kindness to those around us will impact the teens who are watching us.
Next, we must show God’s love for them and for the world. Teens’ concept of love is so influenced by what they experience at home, what they see in media and in the culture surrounding them that God’s love needs explaining. Love is not self-explanatory anymore, and we need to be very clear about how God’s love looks: unending, unfailing, unimaginable.
Third, we can help teens develop compassion and love. Often all it takes is a confrontation with the hurt of others, especially in their own community. Serve with your students in a food bank, local youth shelter, soup kitchen or charity thrift store. It will change the way they view themselves and others.
When a few of our older students got involved in a local homeless shelter, it completely changed their perspectives. Suddenly they were willing to get dirty and serve out of love for these people who had nothing. Serving helped them find compassion for others way beyond the homeless they were serving.
One more thing on the motivation for evangelism: There’s always a friction between wanting to encourage students to invite friends and making sure they do if for the right reasons. Because the stakes are so high, we may err on the side of pressure. I’ve heard countless variations, for example, of: “If you don’t share the gospel with your friends you risk them going to hell.” I understand this; I truly do, but it doesn’t work. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to stir our students’ hearts into evangelizing, not ours. Besides that, this stance puts us on a theologically slippery slope. It’s just a short step from, “You really should invite your friends to this event,” to, “You’re not a good Christian if you never invite people.”
Starting Point No. 3: Owning the Method
Effective, missional evangelism gives students the freedom to do evangelism in a way that fits their personalities, interests and spiritual gifts.
Too often evangelism is understood as Jesus-juking every conversation into a spiritual one or constantly asking your friends about the purpose of living. Evangelism is more than inviting friends to youth service or having difficult conversations about intelligent design or why God allows evil in this world. We must help students define what evangelism is and how it looks for them.
When I was a college student, I was involved in a Dutch local chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ, which was called Agape there. Their default method of evangelism was going door to door with a spiritual questionnaire, hoping to trick people into having a spiritual conversation. I participated a few times, but my main motivation was guilt—I felt I had to participate.
Aside from the question of whether this method ever should be used, it certainly did not fit my gifts and personality. My gift isn’t debating or discussing the gospel. My gift is explaining it in simple terms, preaching it in a relational way. There was little freedom to define outreach in any other terms than going door to door.
Students should know the gospel can be shared from their place of giftedness and passion. They do not have to follow a formula. As we encourage them to share the gospel, we also should trust them. They don’t need to do it our way, and they certainly can handle more responsibility than merely inviting friends to our events, where we supposedly do the rest. All we need to do is encourage them and help them. With that as a basis, students can find their personal method that works for them.
There are the students who are great at inviting people to events. Others are really good at building long-term relationships with people and living out the gospel. Others are great at sharing their testimony or will do fantastic debating answers to difficult questions. You may have students who have a hobby or interest that gives them a unique edge in reaching a certain group such as gaming or skating. A few guys from my former youth group started a Christian screamo band. They were invited to some non-Chrsitian music festivals, and there were able to build relationships with screamo fans (a hard-to-reach group) and share the gospel with them.
Don’t feel pressured to foster one default method of evangelism. Allow students the freedom to evangelize in whatever way best fits their personalities and gifts. They may come up with some pretty unconventional but effective ways of sharing the gospel.
Starting Point No. 4: Mentoring
Even if students use their God-given gifts, evangelism doesn’t always feel natural. If we immediately throw them into the deep end of the pool, they may end up feeling frustrated. It falls to us to help students become more skilled as they share the gospel. Some could benefit from a basic course in apologetics. Others would do so much better if they could practice explaining the gospel. Most will need pointers about sharing their personal testimony effectively. If you have students who are using a unique method to evangelize, pairing them with a skilled mentor is the best avenue.
Let’s not downplay the spiritual battle that comes with active evangelism. One of the best friends my husband and I had in college was asked to lead an evangelism committee. He was a relatively young Christian, however, and he wasn’t prepared for the spiritual consequences of being in the frontlines. He almost lost his faith because of it.
Personal guidance and mentoring is of crucial importance. Small group leaders could do specific follow-up and pay attention to this aspect of a student’s life. Or, if you have a youth group in which just a few students actively are sharing their faith, have them meet once a month to debrief and share experiences—but don’t forget to share the joys and success stories!
When students are set free to evangelize from a heart of love in ways that fit their personalities and gifts, people respond. Countless lives have been changed for eternity because teens reached their peers with the good news of Jesus Christ. We must disciple them, teach them, encourage them and then set them free. After that, we’re just along for the ride. Prepare to be amazed.
Rachel Blom is of Dutch origin, having recently moved from Germany to upstate New York with her family. As a former youth pastor and veteran youth ministry volunteer, finding a new church home wjere sje cam biuld relationships with students is a high priority. Rachel is a gifted speaker, avid youth ministry blogger and author of Beyond Small Talk: Connecting with Teenagers Through Conversations that Matter.
